Wednesday, January 17, 2007

More from the Brennan Files

Slate has followed up on its earlier story, based on Justice Brennan's papers. Jim Newton, author of Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made, describes summaries Brennan would write of each Court term. Those memos are posted with Newton's articles. The first article is noted here.

The second article, concerning Justice Brennan and the abortion cases and U.S. v. Nixon, is here. The final article, "Brennan dishes on his colleagues," is here. (A preview: on Rehnquist in a contraception case: "The vehemence of the dissent did not surprise us, but the absence of a reasoned attack did." On O'Connor's first term: "I viewed her at that time as potentially an independent 'swing' vote on the Court.")